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Updates to New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act

"[C]ertain changes to the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) went into effect on February 22, 2026.... [A]dditional Rules and FAQs have been published offering further developments and guidance ... [1] Notice of Employee Rights ... [2] Determining size of employer ... [3] Change in employer size ... [4] Employers located outside New York City must provide protected time off to employees who work in New York City.... [5] Broad interpretation of 'family member' ... [6] Advance notice from employee ... [7] Documentation ... [8] Discipline."  MORE >>

New York City Expands Earned Safe and Sick Time Again

"New York City's Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) adds 32 hours of frontloaded unpaid safe/sick time to its existing paid safe/sick time requirements for employers. The ESSTA also expands the permissible uses for both types of leave under the Act to include scenarios tied to caregiving, housing or subsistence proceedings, public disasters and workplace violence. Employers ... will no longer be required to grant a set number of temporary schedule changes; employees, instead, will enjoy a protected right to request such changes."  MORE >>

Prepare Your Workplace: New York City Sick Time Law Expands Next Month

"Amendments to the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act and the Temporary Schedule Change Law will require employers to provide additional unpaid sick/safe time and expand the reasons for which sick/safe time can be used, while dialing back employers' temporary schedule change obligations. Ahead of the February 22, 2026 effective date, employers should update their policies and practices to ensure compliance with the new requirements."  MORE >>

New York City Unveils Proposed Rules for Updated Earned Safe and Sick Time Act

"On January 22, 2026, New York City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) released proposed rules implementing recent amendments to the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA). The amendments, which were adopted in October 2025 and are effective as of February 22, 2026, ... expand the covered reasons for leave, and add a new and separate bank of thirty-two hours of unpaid ESSTA leave, among other things."  MORE >>

Time For State-Based Single Payer: The New York Health Act

"[The authors] summarize economic projections of moving to a single-payer health care system and look at how they compare with proposed federal cuts, based on analyses of the New York Health Act (NYHA) (A1466/S3425), a universal public health coverage bill in front of the New York State Legislature. [They] also outline how state plans such as the NYHA could avoid the need for federal waivers and explain why now is an especially important time for state-based reform."  MORE >>

Recent Updates to New York City Earned Sick Time Act

"[T]he New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) ... was amended to expand benefits to employees ... by: [1] providing 32 hours of unpaid safe/sick leave to new employees upon hire and to all employees at the beginning of each benefit year, in addition to the required paid safe/sick leave; [2] expanding the categories for which employees can use safe/sick leave; and [3] codifying paid prenatal leave into New York City law. These changes go into effect on February 22, 2026."  MORE >>

New York City Council Amends Earned Safe and Sick Time Act

"Beginning February 22, 2026, covered New York City employers must provide employees with an additional 32 hours of unpaid safe and sick time, frontloaded at hire.... The amended Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) adds four potential uses for safe and sick time ... Employers must also provide 20 hours of paid prenatal leave per 52-week period, which is concurrent with New York State law."  MORE >>

The New York Times is Freezing Pension Plan

Excerpt: The New York Times Company has amended The New York Times Companies Pension Plan, a defined benefit pension plan for non-union employees, to discontinue future benefit accruals and freeze existing accrued benefits effective December 31, 2009. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Times said it is increasing contributions under The New York Times Companies Supplemental Retirement and Investment Plan (SRIP), its 401(k) plan, such that participants will receive a cash contribution of 3% of pay, up to applicable limits, effective January 1, 2010.

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New York City Issues FAQs on Earned Safe and Sick Time Act Amendments

"The DCWP's FAQs provide guidance and clarity on a number of outstanding questions ... Employers cannot provide a prorated amount of immediately available hours when an employee is hired partway through a calendar year.... When an employee has both paid and unpaid protected time off available for use, the employer should provide paid protected time off to cover absences, unless the employee specifies the preference to use unpaid protected time off instead."  MORE >>

New York City Releases Guidance and Mandatory Notice of Employee Rights Under Earned Safe and Sick Time Act

"[S]everal questions that were initially unanswered have been addressed, including: [1] Whether part-time employees and/or mid-year hires must be provided the full 32 hours of unpaid sick leave at the beginning of the year.... [2] Whether employers can provide 32 hours of additional paid sick leave in lieu of providing unpaid sick leave.... [3] When employees can use protected time 'to provide care to [a] minor child or care recipient'.... [4] In what increments of time unpaid sick leave may be taken."  MORE >>

New York City Proposes Rules for Implementing Recent Amendments to the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act

"Although the proposed rules clarify that employers may fulfill their obligation to provide 32 hours of unpaid protected time off by providing an equivalent amount of paid protected time off, they also suggest that if an employer provides an equivalent (or greater) amount of paid protected time off, the employer is not exempt from ESSTA’s strict leave‑tracking, pay stub and recordkeeping obligations, and employers must still make such paid protected time off available immediately upon hire and on Jan. 1 of each year."  MORE >>

New York City Employers Face New Safe and Sick Time Obligations: Will You Be Ready for the Compliance Deadline?

"The law ... will take effect in 120 days on Sunday, February 22, 2026... Employees must generally use their paid safe and sick time first before using time from this new unpaid bank.... Unlike the requirements for paid safe and sick time, employers are not required to carry over any unused time from this bank to the next year.... Employees may use safe and sick time for new reasons."  MORE >>

New York City Amends Sick Time Law to Require New Unpaid Leave and Permit New Covered Uses

"The amended ESSTA requires employers to make available the additional 32 hours of unpaid safe/sick time immediately at hire, as well as to 'frontload' it at the start of each new benefit year. The unpaid safe/sick time may be used immediately by employees upon receipt. Further, under the amended ESSTA, if an employee communicates to their employer that they need time off for a purpose covered by safe/sick time, the employer must provide paid safe/sick time unless the employee has no such time available or the employee specifically requests to use other leave in lieu of paid safe/sick time."  MORE >>

New York City Employers: Are You Ready for a 'Protected Time Off Law' Enforcement Blitz?

"On Friday, February 20, 2026, New York City Mayor Zohran Mandami announced that the DCWP 'launched an enforcement blitz' by sending letters to more than 56,000 employers across the city. A press release hailing a 'new data-driven enforcement strategy' emphasized that violating the law will subject employers to civil penalties ranging from $250 to $2,500 per employee, in addition to damages such as back pay."  MORE >>

Potential Expansion of New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time

"New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time will be greatly expanded. Safe and Sick Time is separate from other types of requisite paid leave, including prenatal leave and preventative screening leave.... [E]mployers will also be required to provide additional unpaid leave to all employees, including new employees upon hire, with no probation period.... [U]nless vetoed by October 25, it will automatically become law -- taking effect 120 days after it was passed -- around January 23, 2026."  MORE >>

Most New York City Employers Must Offer Commuter Transportation Benefits to Full-Time Employees

"New York City's Mass Transit Benefit Law requires that most New York City employers with at least 20 full-time employees offer such full-time employees the opportunity to use their pre-tax earnings, up to $130 per month, to pay for certain 'qualified transportation fringe benefits,' but not qualified parking. Although the Mass Transit Benefit Law takes effect on January 1, 2016, covered employers essentially have a six-month grace period to comply because the law provides that penalties will not be assessed for violations that occur before July 1, 2016. With this law, New York City joins San Francisco and Washington, D.C. in mandating that employers offer transportation benefits to their employees."  MORE >>

New York City Publishes Updated FAQs and Notices for Amended Earned Safe and Sick Time Act

"The FAQs clarify that, as of February 22, 2026, employers must provide thirty-two hours of unpaid safe and sick leave for immediate use to all current employees, in addition to new hires. Additionally, employers must provide another bank of thirty-two hours of unpaid protected time off on the first day of the employers' calendar year. The FAQs also clarify that employers cannot provide a prorated amount of immediately available hours when an employee is hired partway through the calendar year."  MORE >>

New York City Employers on Alert: Actions to Take Now as Protected Time Off Enforcement Ramps Up

"Employers must post the updated Notice of Rights and provide it to existing employees in English and any language spoken as a primary language by at least 5% of the workforce ... As of February 22, employers must provide employees with 32 hours of unpaid protected time off, available immediately. New hires must also receive 32 hours of immediately available protected time off.... Paid prenatal leave must be provided as a separate bank and cannot be satisfied by more generous sick leave or PTO policies."  MORE >>

New York City Employers: Changes Required by Amendments to Increase Earned Safe and Sick Time Act

"The Earned Sick and Safe Time Act has been expanded to [1] formally codify the paid prenatal leave requirements into the local law, [2] provide for additional unpaid time, and [3] permit more reasons for use of time."  MORE >>

New York City Poised to Require Employers to Provide Parents with Paid Child Vaccination Time Off

"On November 23, 2021, the New York City Council approved a bill that ... would amend New York City's Earned Safe and Sick Time Act ... [to] provide employees with paid time off in connection with vaccinating their children for COVID-19.... If signed by the Mayor or if no action is taken by the Mayor [by December 23], the amended ordinance will become effective immediately, with retroactive effect to November 2, 2021. The child vaccine paid time off would expire on December 31, 2022."  MORE >>